New coordination complexex for solar energy conversion

加拿大公民的生活水平经常被评为世界上最好的，这让他们感到自豪。加拿大丰富的资源，特别是大量的化石燃料，极大地提高了我们令人羡慕的生活水平。然而，随着世界人口到2050年增长到100亿，地球上不可再生的燃料来源逐渐枯竭，对能源的需求将超过目前预测的化石燃料储量，此外还会增加我们大气中的温室气体组成。尽管加拿大的能源储备可能会在可预见的未来满足我们自己对能源的需求，但它们也可能减缓我们对即将到来的世界能源危机和全球气候变化的反应，更重要的是，它们会出于自满而阻碍我们对替代能源研究的承诺。这将是一个严重的错误，因为与未来几代能源独立程度较低的国家相比，加拿大人在科学和技术上将处于劣势。这项发现资助申请旨在支持加拿大参与替代能源研究，并在这一领域对研究生和研究人员进行相应的培训，这对加拿大的未来繁荣至关重要。我们研究的主要目标是创造能够从阳光中产生可用形式的能量的人工光合作用设备(Apd)(例如，从水中提取氢气)。在此过程中，我们将学习到大量有关光合作用系统的基本过程，如电子和能量传递。对基本流程的理解反过来将帮助我们为我们的apd生产出越来越好的模型。有朝一日，我们也许能够廉价地利用太阳光生产化学能源，并将其作为一种可再生资源。为了达到从水中光解氢气的目的，我们需要合成光活性催化剂并对其光物理性质进行分析。总而言之，这项发现拨款申请和我们的补充设备拨款申请将使我们能够设计和创造新的光催化剂，用于从水中生产氢气。他们还将允许新学生在雪崩的合成和光物理分析方面获得宝贵的专业知识。

Canadian citizens are proud to have a standard of living that has routinely been selected as among the best in the world. The wealth of resources found in Canada, in particular the large quantity of fossil fuels, has contributed greatly to our enviable living standard. However, as the world's population grows towards 10 billion by 2050 and the Earth's non-renewable fuel sources are gradually depleted, the demand for energy will exceed currently projected fossil fuel reserves in addition to raising the greenhouse gas composition of our atmosphere. Although Canadian energy reserves may satiate our own demands for energy in the foreseeable future, they may also slow our response to the impending world energy crisis and global climate change, and more significantly, impede our commitment to alternative energy research out of complacency. This would be a grave error as Canadians would be at a scientific and technological disadvantage compared to less energy independent nations for generations to come. This discovery grant application intends to bolster Canada's involvement in alternative energy research and the concomitant training of graduate students and researchers in this area so critical to Canada's future prosperity.The main goal of our research is to create artificial photosynthetic devices (APD) capable of producing usable forms of energy from sunlight (e.g., H2 from H2O). Along the way, we will learn a great deal about the fundamental processes involved in photosynthetic systems, such as electron and energy transfer. The understanding of fundamental processes will in turn help us to produce better and better models for our APD. One day we may be able to produce chemical energy from sunlight inexpensively and as a renewable resource. In order to reach our goal of the photoproduction of H2 from water, we need to synthesize photoactive catalysts and analyze their photophysical properties. In summary, this discovery grant application and our complementary equipment grant application will allow us to design and create new photocatalysts for the production of H2 from H2O. They will also allow new students to gain valuable expertise in the synthesis and photophysical analysis of APD.